New Collection?

Ever walked into a shop and the only staff present is a cat? It seems I've started a photo collection....

Don't look at me like that and yes we are open.....

Yeah have a look around, but you're not getting anything wrapped in this tissue paper...
You can often see this market cat at Cornercopia in the Granville Arcade (always hated the new name Brixton Village!) Brixton Market.

Featured!

My copy of Upcyclist arrived today - I am so proud to be included in this beautiful book. It really is gorgeous and full of great artists and photographs - no dabblers here - this is seriously good design only.

And perhaps most importantly.....Otis made the edit....in what is perhaps his best portrait to date.

Handsome and well dressed.

Merry, Merry, Merry

Merry Festivities Blogland Folk!

Studio Change

Before

After

I left Carlton Mansions after 30 years - all my adult life really - because Lambeth evicted our 35 year old co-op. My work was born and nurtured here and I see how the decaying grandeur of my all time favourite building (and Will Self's!) influenced my work. When I moved in in 1984 Brixton was a very different place; some places were called 'no go areas' and some flats and houses 'hard to let' Imagine that!

Packing was a complete nightmare - there was no motivation as I didn't want to leave. Circumstances meant that I'd be taking half my stuff to Devon to be near my mum in her old age and half my stuff to a London studio which I finally found after months on waiting lists, so every item needed a decision of which of the 2 places to go to and you can imagine how much stuff I have as a salvage artist who hates waste!

So, moving forward I find myself beyond Bow in east London with a whole new area to explore; already got lost cycling but autumn has been so sunny and my favourite season for cycling in London that it's been a pleasure. I love my new studio, am gradually making it mine and have started to meet my customers there. It's probably a good thing to be in a completely new neighbourhood as leaving the glorious Mansions was so painful - I hate to think of it standing there empty without our 16 households keeping it warm and I think of the foxes who would prowl our stairwells at night - I hope they and the squirrels and wrens and tits who all nested there have all taken it over completely.

I love old industrial buildings and it's very hard to find a nice, affordable studio in London these days so all in all I'm very lucky. Most importantly Otis has made the transition well too - I am so proud of him. Here he is resting in the bubble wrap box in between explorations in his new country garden.

Some Recent Finds

Pickings from charity shops are often thin on the ground these days but I have found a few things recently in Devon. There are plenty of charity shops in Totnes, known as a 'bohemian' epicentre in these parts; look past the hippie stuff and it's great for healthy food shopping and eating, vintage and loads more. Transition Town Totnes initiated the Totnes pound to promote local economic sustainability, Brixton followed and others evolve inspired by the originators. 

In Animals in Distress I found this bean slicer.  I'd never seen one before, you screw it to the table like a mincer. I just loved it, especially the fact that it's green bean coloured. I haven't tried it with beans yet - my finds are usually destined for a life outside the kitchen - but I'll give it a scrub and have a go. 

In Tavistock I found 3 eye baths in one lot. Odd I thought. In my junk collection I have some glass ventouses from a Paris flea market and a box of test tubes, so maybe enough to consider a medical themed chandelier......

Also from Animals in Distress are these mini master-pieces; sewing machine parts for 50 pence each. Beautiful tiny sculptures, much bigger and they could be in the Tate Modern Gallery. In this shop I also got the box of spoons in top photo background (I use these in my Jelly Bowl Lanterns), a large Jaeger mohair scarf and a gents dapper paisley fringed scarf - so rich pickings there - just like the good old days.

And just because I haven't posted a cat photo for a while....spot an assistant stylist for the above shots.

Assistant

My assistant joins me at teatime and as usual places himself at the hub of things.

Merry

I hear there is a raging debate in the States as to whether Santa Claus was black or white, well maybe he was black AND white.....
Merry Festivities Blogland folk, have a fabulous 2014, whatever you celebrate the light will start to return after tomorrow.

Cooling

It's cooled to autumn - my favourite season - and so apart from beautifully coloured leaves it's also time to start admiring cats keeping warm. This is a friends cat, Treacle who lives in the countryside. As I started spending more time there I was going to post more photos but got unnerved by the dastardly local council bods trying to evict us who used this information in their social cleansing campaign, implying I may want to leave the area anyway - how weird, I don't. I am still in South London! and we don't go back to court til April.
Grayson Perry has been very interesting in his Reith lectures: talking about artists as the shock troops of gentrification. It's true, we move into an area people didn't much want to live in, clean up the dirt, make it buzzy and interesting and then the developers move in - he therefore suggested you should pay artists to live in these places for free. Yes! It's so saddening, when will planners and developers start counting us in as an asset instead of squeezing us out? Have a listen here on BBC iplayer.

I had bravely, or stupidly, walked through a field with a bull in it on the way to fondle an egg from under this bird and have tea with freshly baked cake using her eggs.

Perfection

He turned 7 years old on the summer solstice. He really is the bizness. He does these apparently lazy seductions that are very effective. He knows all the important things before you do. He takes the hard edges off the day better than a glass of wine can. I love him so much my heart could explode.

Broken China

Over at My Friends House blog they're offering crockery therapy for the china you're annoyed at having broken. If you send your photo to them they will blog it and you'll receive sympathy to help you get over the loss. Well I knew the feeling and sent them my broken plate photo.  Being thrifty - of course the obvious thing to do is collect it all and then have a bash at mosaic. I don't like things too twee and saccharine so that's always the challenge with these things.

I hope I avoided that in my first attempt in the urban 'yarden'. I think the block of green squares helps to vary the scale and not be too busy with tiny pieces. None of these glazes would have been frost proof, so amazingly it's lasted well outdoors. I still have a box of broken pieces so I might have another go sometime. And since we're in the garden lets have a photo of the urban garden cat: Otis.

Olympic Round Up

Well it was fantastic! - and to think how many of us Londoners were dreading the invasion and congestion of our city - it was great to see supporters everywhere. I've been trying to work out why the Olympics is SO moving, apart from the athletes giving it their all. I think it's the coming together of all the different countries with a common language that unites everyone and transcends other differences. Really everyone was supporting everyone not just their country's athletes.

Men's swimming marathon in the Serpentine

There's not an awful lot to see in the marathon swimming but I hope the children I went with will remember the atmosphere in years to come and that they did see some of the 2012 Olympics live.
Speaking of marathons......

........here is the Mo Farah of sleeping, Otis, gold medal due for stamina in sleeping all evening, all night and into the next day mid afternoon. Spectacular.

...and Summer out of the City

I've been somewhere hotter...

...changing trains in Paris...

...heading South..

...where you need to find ways to keep cool...

...and here you may spot..

...a southern window box dweller!

Summer in the City

Although there is no summer to speak of here and oceans of rain are still falling, it has been warm enough for the squirrel season on my window sill to end. It didn't pass without a conversation with the BBC Springwatch team though, so we'll see if they become an Autumnwatch story if they come back and rebuild at the end of the year.

There were alot of different squirrels using the dray, this is Cyril, I could tell him by the particularly white fluffy bits behind his ears, his bald patch on his tail, partly his face, and his little hands had no rusty brown bits which some of the others did.

Seven changed their forecourt for summer, it's in a covered arcade so their garden furniture on the lawn and picket fence worked well. The neighbouring cat who you may have seen in this post had made this corner his spot on the winter bench, well he just adapted to summer and stayed in exactly the same spot - even though his seat had gone.

Yeh, it's all about stripes this season

Another post about Cats not Arty stuff

I love the RSPCA

This little wormy fleabag of kitten came into my life this weekend. After trying to find the source of mewing in a long, cluttered alley way, a neighbour and I finally caught this wild, scared little guy, he gave me a good biting but later calmed down and enjoyed some love and attention. Much as I loved him, that took a split second - I cant have a 2nd cat right now and this one needed a full medical going over. We called the RSPCA and they were fantastic. Because of them this story has a happy ending. He'll be cleared of worms, fleas and mites, comforted from his trauma and go to a good home and become someone's beloved.
I'm definitely sending a donation to the RSPCA.

Cafe Cats and Cat Cafes

Spotted this well camouflaged cat at Seven in Brixton Market today.

Tiger is from the veg shop behind but has adopted this spot - very wise.

                            At the Scooterworks cafe in Waterloo Bobatina chooses a good seat....

...from which to get all the attention she needs.

In Japan a Cat Cafe is a whole different thing - like a brothel with cats! Lovely cats will join you at the table.....

Before I went to the Hapineko cafe, I had a look at their website. You can look at albums of photos of each of the cats - called "staff". When I got there a Siamese called Mimi made straight for my lap, so of course she was my instant favourite.
These cafes started because cats are so popular in Japan but flats are often small with no outdoor space and people work long hours - so instead of owning your own you can buy a coffee and a half hour in a cat cafe!

Spring!

Winter was great....for some: the studio muse.....not sure if he inspires me to industriousness in this mode or not.....

Thinking Inside the Box

Seeing a squirrel rebuilding the winter refuge in my window box really cheered up this grey day.

This industrious little guy trimmed the ivy as he got new material for the home. Squirrels spent three winters here then last year moved to my neighbour upstairs. I never cleared out the box and replaced plants because I always hoped they'd come back - so I was really happy to see this activity today. They re-use the paper and plastic, they're great upcyclers and reccyclers. I just love watching how clever they are, and they stop and stare and make eye contact which is very cute.  Otis was having one of his many siestas whilst the construction took place, so no pouncing at the window.

When he did get active he had an in the box thing going on aswell, I know cats do generally like exploring boxes, but Otis doesn't usually bother, I'm sure he did this because he sensed I'd paid other creatures quite enough attention (he does seem to know everything) and so spotted this was where he could have maximum impact on what I was working with.



Past winter squirrel posts here and here, the latter a little movie.